Congratulations! You made it! You survived and excelled in your student teaching. You are now a science teacher! If you would, take a few minutes to share your wisdom about how to negotiate this difficult year with the students who are following in your footsteps by answering the following questions.
a. What are some things students should do in their fall practicum to make their student teaching go more smoothly?
I would say the biggest thing is to get to know your CT very well, and use that for everything you can get from it. Especailly with your first placement. Get to know the kids, the school and the teacher. What is his/her style? What manner does your CT use for opening and closing class/ classroom routines etc. The better you know this the more comfortable you will be when it comes time to start teaching. Spend as much time as resonably possible with your CT observing and take as active a role as they will allow while you are visiting. Ask to teach a mini lesson, preferably of your design. Work one on one with the students to get an idea of that age groups learning abilities and styles. You cannot over prepare in this manner.
Second would be to take yourself seriously and take care of yourself. This is not the time to go out and party on thursday night. You need to start training yourself to not only be up, but productive in the morning. Let your boss(es) now that they shouldne be expecting as much of you in the spring as they are now, this is a big commitment.
b. What 430 topics/assignments should students make sure are addressed in detail to prepare them for student teaching?
Im going to go with an obvious choice, but with a spin. The biggest thing you can do to help prepare is to get your unit plan absolutly rocking - that should be obvious. The trick here is to focus on what is important to actually teaching it. Spend alot of time on things like creating interesting projects and activities. You want to have the big picture down really well, i personally always fill in the details towards the last minute - as this is when you most accuratly know what the class needs at that particular point in time. Focus your energy on comming up with awesome lesson outlines, projects that encourage students to take an active role in their learning and purposeful small group activities and labs. These are the things that take the most time to plan, and require materials that you cannot alwasy get your hands on the week before, let alone a day or two before. Again I personally found myself constantly altering worksheets, notes etc. The main outline of the unit and the lessons were huge. With that in mind though make sure your unit is complete, things happen and you are far better off having OK stuff when something goes wrong than nothing at all.
Try and think about why you are doing what your doing with the formal lesson plans, while you may not write the DOK for furture lessons you write, you deiantly want to make sure you think about it. It is very easy to fall into a routine where all you ask for is DOK 1.
And finally spend some time thinking about graphic organizers and thinking maps, these can prove very useful, even in high school.
c. Help the next group of science education student teachers by completing the thought: "If I knew in September what I know now, I could have done a better job during student teaching if I had ...."
The kids are going to try to feel you out. Your students have spent a long time figuring out your CT, and at this stage in the year your CT can ' have a little fun with the kids'. He/she can get away with joking with the kids and laughing at them etc. You need to keep this in mind. Start of tougher and then ease of once youve set boundries, if you try to pick up exactly where your CT left off - you are in for a tough time.
d. Are there other words of wisdom/encouragement that you want to share?
Your CT's are a tool - and they are also real people with a passion for what they do ( at least mine where), be honest with them. Let them know you want to learn, if you strive for the best they will be more then willing to help. When my CT left the room she would usually email me an informal assesment of myself and my lesson, including good and bad - this was the single most valuable thing from my stuednt teaching, constant feedback, and it was non threatning and informal.... perhaps this says something about how you should teach your class....
Take it serious, but remember that you are learning, you will make mistakes - as long as you learn from them your doing okay. Remeber this is student teaching.
Make sure if you are working with a middle school team, that you actually work with them. I learned so much from the whole team, and from the kids.
Go in with a clean slate. Some kids will really get to yuour CT in the 6 months+ before you get there, its only human to get frustrated from time to time. But you are a differnt person and you can have a huge effect on students. Students that wouldnt hane in anything before i began teaching rarely missed assignments, of course the opposite can happen to, so be careful.
Be careful in the begining when you are just learning the students name. At first I found myself calling on the kids whos names I learned first more - this can look like you are picking favorites. Be aware of this.
Dont lose track of why you are here. Every week or so (especially if things didnt go exactly as planned) I would read through my teaching rationale and my PDSP, to remind me of why I was here and what I was trying to accomplish.
I firmly believe that their is no job more challenging, rewarding, and important than what you are about to embark on - you should to if you made it this far - never lose site of that. You will have good days and you will have bad, but dont lose track.
Kids like to see a teacher in control. At first I felt bad for the good kids whenever i had to talk to the rest of the class, or move seats because of it. But they apreciate it - and the kids your tazlking to/moving need it. As long as you are sincere and beleive in what your doing, the kids can tell the differnce between genuine care and concern about them - and simply yelling at them.
And finally dont let anyone tell you that you cannot fit a square peg through a round hole. Or a square peg through a star shaped hole. Sometimes you need to. Believe in what you tell your kids and be the person you need to be. Instead of teaching your kids to fit into the mold, teach them to slip right in and make it there own.
a. What are some things students should do in their fall practicum to make their student teaching go more smoothly?
I would say the biggest thing is to get to know your CT very well, and use that for everything you can get from it. Especailly with your first placement. Get to know the kids, the school and the teacher. What is his/her style? What manner does your CT use for opening and closing class/ classroom routines etc. The better you know this the more comfortable you will be when it comes time to start teaching. Spend as much time as resonably possible with your CT observing and take as active a role as they will allow while you are visiting. Ask to teach a mini lesson, preferably of your design. Work one on one with the students to get an idea of that age groups learning abilities and styles. You cannot over prepare in this manner.
Second would be to take yourself seriously and take care of yourself. This is not the time to go out and party on thursday night. You need to start training yourself to not only be up, but productive in the morning. Let your boss(es) now that they shouldne be expecting as much of you in the spring as they are now, this is a big commitment.
b. What 430 topics/assignments should students make sure are addressed in detail to prepare them for student teaching?
Im going to go with an obvious choice, but with a spin. The biggest thing you can do to help prepare is to get your unit plan absolutly rocking - that should be obvious. The trick here is to focus on what is important to actually teaching it. Spend alot of time on things like creating interesting projects and activities. You want to have the big picture down really well, i personally always fill in the details towards the last minute - as this is when you most accuratly know what the class needs at that particular point in time. Focus your energy on comming up with awesome lesson outlines, projects that encourage students to take an active role in their learning and purposeful small group activities and labs. These are the things that take the most time to plan, and require materials that you cannot alwasy get your hands on the week before, let alone a day or two before. Again I personally found myself constantly altering worksheets, notes etc. The main outline of the unit and the lessons were huge. With that in mind though make sure your unit is complete, things happen and you are far better off having OK stuff when something goes wrong than nothing at all.
Try and think about why you are doing what your doing with the formal lesson plans, while you may not write the DOK for furture lessons you write, you deiantly want to make sure you think about it. It is very easy to fall into a routine where all you ask for is DOK 1.
And finally spend some time thinking about graphic organizers and thinking maps, these can prove very useful, even in high school.
c. Help the next group of science education student teachers by completing the thought: "If I knew in September what I know now, I could have done a better job during student teaching if I had ...."
The kids are going to try to feel you out. Your students have spent a long time figuring out your CT, and at this stage in the year your CT can ' have a little fun with the kids'. He/she can get away with joking with the kids and laughing at them etc. You need to keep this in mind. Start of tougher and then ease of once youve set boundries, if you try to pick up exactly where your CT left off - you are in for a tough time.
d. Are there other words of wisdom/encouragement that you want to share?
Your CT's are a tool - and they are also real people with a passion for what they do ( at least mine where), be honest with them. Let them know you want to learn, if you strive for the best they will be more then willing to help. When my CT left the room she would usually email me an informal assesment of myself and my lesson, including good and bad - this was the single most valuable thing from my stuednt teaching, constant feedback, and it was non threatning and informal.... perhaps this says something about how you should teach your class....
Take it serious, but remember that you are learning, you will make mistakes - as long as you learn from them your doing okay. Remeber this is student teaching.
Make sure if you are working with a middle school team, that you actually work with them. I learned so much from the whole team, and from the kids.
Go in with a clean slate. Some kids will really get to yuour CT in the 6 months+ before you get there, its only human to get frustrated from time to time. But you are a differnt person and you can have a huge effect on students. Students that wouldnt hane in anything before i began teaching rarely missed assignments, of course the opposite can happen to, so be careful.
Be careful in the begining when you are just learning the students name. At first I found myself calling on the kids whos names I learned first more - this can look like you are picking favorites. Be aware of this.
Dont lose track of why you are here. Every week or so (especially if things didnt go exactly as planned) I would read through my teaching rationale and my PDSP, to remind me of why I was here and what I was trying to accomplish.
I firmly believe that their is no job more challenging, rewarding, and important than what you are about to embark on - you should to if you made it this far - never lose site of that. You will have good days and you will have bad, but dont lose track.
Kids like to see a teacher in control. At first I felt bad for the good kids whenever i had to talk to the rest of the class, or move seats because of it. But they apreciate it - and the kids your tazlking to/moving need it. As long as you are sincere and beleive in what your doing, the kids can tell the differnce between genuine care and concern about them - and simply yelling at them.
And finally dont let anyone tell you that you cannot fit a square peg through a round hole. Or a square peg through a star shaped hole. Sometimes you need to. Believe in what you tell your kids and be the person you need to be. Instead of teaching your kids to fit into the mold, teach them to slip right in and make it there own.